12/14/11 You Buy One, You Kill One

Animal Friends is welcoming holidays with disturbing ads inviting people not to buy animals

- Ads with a pointing gun, saying, "You bought an animal? You killed one animal’s chances."

At holiday time many people want to surprise their loved ones, especially children, buying a dog or another animal. However, cultivation and trade of animals are associated with immense suffering and death of animals, not just those that are sold, but those waiting to be adopted. When people buy an animal, they take away the chance for adoption to the abandoned animals in shelters.

Dog breeders often steam and fertilize the females more than twice a year, although in Croatia it is not allowed. It is a rape, where the animal's body and its natural instinct are being exploited for the disgraceful gain of profit. Female dogs are being treated as machines for the birth of puppies, which are sold at two months of age. Sometimes puppies die young or become sick. Dog shows rise prices of dog breeding and their future offspring, and encourage people to purchase, while the breeders choose with whom the dog will breed, to ensure a "quality breeding."

In Croatia, there is also a large number of illegal kennels, as well as the constant presence of illegal import. Animals are living beings, not objects and should not be subjected to trade. Purchasing an animal supports the callous exploitation and torture. At the same time, the number of abandoned dogs is growing rapidly.

Animal Friends, in collaboration with PETA, is warning of the alarming problem of purchasing animals linked to the killing of abandoned animals. On disturbing ads, which will be seen in several Croatian cities, a gun barrel is pointed towards the abandoned dog, with the message "You bought an animal? You killed one animal's chances" and the clear slogan "Adopt. Never buy."

Although, according to the Animal Protection Act, all local communities should provide animal shelters and adoption programs, in Croatia there are only a few shelters that come to the nonkilling policy, in most cities shelters do not even exist. In many cities veterinary clinics which function as shelters are often kill abandoned dogs on the spot or soon after their capture. The number of purchased dogs and other animals increases continually, and the cruel legal and illegal markets of sentient beings is increasing.

Every year thousands of healthy abandoned and unwanted puppies and adult dogs of all breeds, are killed because there are no homes for them, while farmers produce more and more puppies for sale. Croatian Kennel Club (Hrvatski kinoloski savez) issues annually about 9,000 pedigrees, but there are still thousands of dogs in breedings of unregistered breeders. The black market of animals, practically without any control of veterinary inspection, is further contributing to large scale suffering of animals bred for profit.

Animal Friends is urging citizens not to buy animals, or to give an animal as a holiday gift because everyone needs to decide whether they fulfill the requirements and are willing for long-term care of a new family member.

Animal Friends says: Do not buy animals, so as not to kill an abandoned animal’s chances, instead of giving her a chance to live. Along with the ads, an equally disturbing film "You buy one, you kill one" is translated into Croatian.

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Animal Friends is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in 2001 with the aim to promote animal protection and animal rights as well as veganism, as ethical, ecological and healthy lifestyle.
Animal Friends Croatia is a member organization of EVU,
Eurogroup for Animals, ECEAE, FFA, IAFC and OIPA.